Blog de César Salgado

Human Rights Watch fixo público onte o informe que presentou no Comité dos Direitos do Neno (órgano das Nacións Unidas) sobre a discriminación que sofren os nenos de etnia nepalí en Bután.

O informe leva por título “Discrimination against Ethnic Nepali Children in Bhutan” (submission from Human Rights Watch to the Committee on the Rights of the Child).

Copio e pego a introducción do informe:

Human Rights Watch wishes to bring to the Committee’s attention information regarding the following violations of the Convention on the Rights of the Child by the Bhutanese government:

• deprivation of nationality and identity for ethnic Nepali children (arts. 7 and 8);
• denial of the right to return to one’s own country (art. 10);
• discrimination against ethnic Nepali children in Bhutan (art. 2), including in access to education (art. 28), health care (art. 24), and landownership (arts. 16, 27 (3));
• denial of the right of ethnic or linguistic minorities to enjoy their own culture and use their own language (art. 30); and
• sexual violence and other abuses against girls and women (art. 19).

Information regarding the status of children in Bhutan is difficult to obtain due to restrictions on media and civil society groups by the Bhutanese government. Accordingly, this submission does not comprehensively address all violations of children’s rights in Bhutan.

Human Rights Watch’s information is based in large part on our interviews in November 2006 with more than 150 Bhutanese refugees in Nepal and India, both children and adults; with 18 Bhutanese citizens who traveled to India; and with UN, NGO, and government officials. The complete findings of our investigation can be found in: “Last Hope: The Need for Durable Solutions for Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal and India”, vol. 19, no. 7(C), May 2007.

Human Rights Watch previously investigated and reported on gender-based violence against Bhutanese refugee women and girls and systematic discrimination against them in access to aid in: “Trapped by Inequality: Bhutanese Refugee Women in Nepal”, vol. 15, no. 8(C), September 2003.

Hai crises esquecidas no mundo, que so por casualidade ou anécdota saen nos medios de comunicación de masas. Dunha delas fala Human Rights Watch nun informe do mes pasado: “Last Hope: The Need for Durable Solutions for Bhutanese Refugees in Nepal and India”.

Copio e pego o primeiro parágrafo da introducción:

“In the early 1990s tens of thousands of ethnic Nepalis were arbitrarily deprived of their Bhutanese citizenship. Some were then expelled from Bhutan, while others fled the country to escape from a campaign of arbitrary arrest and detention directed against the ethnic Nepalis. For sixteen years these Bhutanese refugees have languished in seven refugee camps in Nepal with no resolution to their plight. In October 2006, however, the United States announced its willingness to resettle up to 60,000 of the refugees. While the U.S. resettlement offer has given hope to many of the Nepali-speaking refugees, now numbering some 106,000, the lack of clear information about the resettlement offer or about the prospects for other durable solutions, namely repatriation to Bhutan or local integration in Nepal, has resulted in increasing anxiety and tensions among the refugees. Some opponents of resettlement have threatened refugees who speak out in favor of resettlement, leaving many refugees fearful of expressing their thoughts on their future. Furthermore, the fate of the remaining 46,000 refugees and of an estimated 10,000-15,000 unregistered refugees in Nepal and 15,000-30,000 unregistered refugees in India remains unclear.”